Unfortunately, Gata Kamsky was today
eliminated in the blitz portion of his semfinals playoff Candidate matches in Kazan, Russia (May 3-27) against
Boris Gelfand. The loss was particularly disappointing since Gata was just a hair away from advancing. After two draws, Kamsky won the third game of the rapid match.

Kamsky only needed a draw with White in the final round of the rapids to advance. Unfortunately, he missed the tactical resource 25.Bxf7 and found himself in trouble instead a few moves later.

After this heartbreak, Kamsky went down quickly in the blitz.

Meanwhile, Alexander Grischuk also advanced against former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik in the blitz playoff. Grischuk played a number of short draws with Kramnik with the white pieces, an odd strategy that somehow paid off in the end.